The present invention relates in general to a single point mooring system for a sea going vessel, such as an oil tanker, which employs a submerged buoy in conjunction with a fluid swivel mounted on or within the vessel's hull to facilitate loading and unloading of the vessel's fluid contents.
Offshore mooring systems have long been employed to secure large seagoing vessels, such as oil tankers, to facilitate the loading and unloading thereof. These large vessels tend to have such deep drafts and generate such high mooring forces, that conventional harbors are frequently unable to accommodate them. Thus, systems for mooring these vessels at sea in relatively deep water have been developed wherein the fluid cargo can be transferred through underwater pipelines extending between the vessel and the shore facilities.
Numerous mooring systems have been developed to achieve this purpose, although most prior systems suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, a number of prior art systems employ mooring elements which extend above the surface of the water and can be easily damaged in rough seas. Further, some means must be provided to prevent the moored vessel from drifting into the exposed elements of the mooring system. To allow a moored vessel to freely pivot about the mooring system, other prior art systems have employed complicated submerged fluid swivel joints which are undesirably exposed to the sea and cannot be accessed easily for maintenance or repair. In view of the foregoing, it is apparent that a new vessel mooring system is desirable which eliminates these drawbacks.